House also will work Friday, maybe Saturday

As the end of the session draws near, lawmakers are set to work on their typical days off in order to consider the glut of legislation moving through the process.

Both the House and the Senate have scheduled floor debate and votes for Friday, June 26, and the Senate is expected to work Saturday, June 27. Generally, the legislative work week is Monday through Thursday.

And House Speaker Kirk Adams said the House will work on Saturday, too, if the circumstances require.

“If we need to be here, we’ll be here,” he said.

The extra work days are necessary because the Senate did not consider non-budget legislation for nearly five months. After the chamber approved a spending plan for the upcoming fiscal year on June 4, it began the process of hearing bills in committee and debating and voting them on the floor.

Although the House had heard its members’ bills in committee during the early months of the session, it refrained on voting many of them because the Senate was not prepared to consider them.

Now, with both chambers having approved a budget, bills are flying through each chamber at a whirlwind pace. Recent days have seen dozens of bills voted on by lawmakers and lengthy committee hearings.